Barbarism and Civilization: A History of Europe in our Time

Wasserstein fashions a powerful narrative. (Sunday Independent.)

This is a huge synthesis marvelously researched, enriched with interesting pictures and a massive bibliography. (Sunday Independent. Milton Shain.)

A rich and broad ranging synthesis…Numerous plums enrich an always fluently written and insightful text that artfully conceals the vast amount of material that has been synthesized. (Mark Mazower. Times Literary Supplement.)

An admirable work of scholarly synthesis, which should be required reading… for anyone absorbed by the perplexing century we recently left behind. (Geoffrey Wheatcroft, The Spectator)

eloquent, exhaustive and highly learned, this book is both a considerable achievement and an enlivening read…a highly competent and impressive book. (John Bew, Times Higher Education Supplement)

Thoughtful, fast-moving… exciting. As narrative histories of the last century go, this is as good as it gets. (Dominic Sandbrook, Literary Review)

By turns grim, humorous and surprising, this is a fascinating sweep of the century, covering war, politics, and social, cultural and economic change. (Belfast Telegraph)